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The More We’re Different, the More We’re the Same

Posted on 9 July 2007 by Jayne Cravens, UNDP, Kabul Afghanistan
I've had *many* people from countries outside the USA, upon learning about my work in volunteer management, tell me that they disagree entirely with the idea of formalized volunteering, where volunteers undertake activities through organizations, whether nonprofits or the government. They feel that promotion of volunteering is an attempt by organizations and the government to get out of paying people for tasks that need doing (and I have to admit, certain government-sponsored campaigns have made me think this as well). Therefore, in other countries, it's especially critical, when promoting volunteerism, to emphasize the reasons why organizations should involve volunteers that have nothing to do with money.

Also, there is a real reluctance (even hostility) in other countries to count those engaged in advocacy work as volunteers, particularly if those volunteers are working to change the government or society, or to stop a particular government or corporate activity. I encountered this in London during a conference -- the speaker would not acknowledge, under any circumstances, that those who were actively in such activities, entirely unpaid, as civic volunteers.

Submitted on 5 July 2007 by Steve McCurley, VM Systems,Olympia, WA USA
If you don't think volunteering is about the same everywhere, check out this article from India about the problems they are having getting people to believe that volunteering in social services isn't just for "jobless people who have nothing else to do in life:" cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=243948

I'm continually surprised by how often I encounter exactly the same questions and difficulties in every country I go to.

Submitted on 4 July 2007 by Christine Russell, Northside Community Forum Inc.,
Regional Volunteer Support Worker, Sydney Australia
A great article - what a terrific summary of the enormous achievement of volunteerism worldwide

Submitted on 4 July 2007 by John Ramsey, Age Concern England, National Volunteer Development Manager, London UK
A few weeks ago I was in Russia giving training to a number of Russian NGOs on how volunteers can help deliver services. A geographically disparate group of organisations, they had two things in common; they all involved volunteers and none of them had heard of ‘volunteer management'

And yet as the day progressed it became clear that as we went through stuff like motivations, benefits etc, all the basic principles were the same.

One interesting point that did arise from it was the greater emphasis they placed on the role volunteering has in developing a civil society which, I think, is due to the context they're working in, i.e., the breakdown of USSR and how society/citizenship is developing in Russia.

Submitted on 3 July 2007 by Joan Brown, California
Thank you for this outstanding paper on international volunteerism.

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